Travel Update: I am home.

Public Typewriter

Originally uploaded by elmada.

From Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Weimar is a long trip. My scheduled train left Schiphol at something like 13:50 with a short ride to Duivendrecht, where I connected to an ICE to Frankfurt Hbf and an onward connection to Weimar. Currently I am scheduled to get to Weimar at 20:44, meaning that the trip from start to stop is just shy of 7 hours.

However there are two other factors to consider.

First I left Amsterdam Schiphol early because I didn’t want to hang out there after MT had checked in. Instead I spent an extra hour at Divendrecht, which is a train crossroads and rather dull. I read abook most of my time there getting annoyed by the announcements.

That is, until, I noticed they were playing a new announcement suddenly: “Watch your personal belongings. Pickpockets are operating in this station.” This message was repeated in Dutch, English, French and German. No sooner than they played the message, than I observed a man realizing that his briefcase was missing.

He had been too busy puffing on a cigarette to notice his briefcase vanish, so while I think the pickpockets should be severely punished to the fullest extent of the law, I cannot say that he didn’t really deserve it.

The message is simple: smoking increases the odds that you’ll be mugged.

The second factor to consider is that somehow my ICE is late. Last time they made an announcement we were 14 minutes late, which means that my 12 minute connection at the Frankfurt Hbf may be in doubt.

If I miss it, I am not sure when the next train to Weimar departs—probably not for another two hours.

Update 1 from the Frankfurt Flughafen Bahnhof: We’re 22 minutes behind. It will take an act of kindness from Deutsch Bahn for me to make the connection.

Update 2 from Home: The connection was busted. One of my Dutch friends happened to be on the train, so we shared a beer in Frankfurt before connection to the next train, which thankfully was only an hour later. I am about to go to bed.